Russian President Dmitry Medvedev stepped out of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s shadow long enough on Tuesday to fire Moscow’s larger-than-life mayor, rattling a political establishment that until now has accepted Putin as the nation’s undisputed authority. The mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, has ruled Russia’s biggest and wealthiest city since 1992 with an authority that would have... 

A suicide bomber has blown himself up in the republic of Dagestan, injuring at least 42 people, including several police officers, according to media reports Saturday. The bomber broke through a police cordon in the capital, Makhachkala, where security officers were battling militia fighters. At least two Islamist rebels were killed in that incident. On Friday at least five suspected Islamist terrorists,... 

Unidentified assailants gunned down a school principal in her home in Russia’s troubled Dagestan province on Friday, while separate shoot-outs killed eight people across the North Caucasus. An Islamist insurgency is raging in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, where rebels angry about poverty and fuelled by the ideology of global jihad want to carve out an independent state governed by... 

Two Russian scientists are being held in a high-security Moscow prison while being investigated on suspicion of spying for China, a lawyer for one of the scientists said Wednesday. The two men, Svyatoslav Bobyshev and Yevgeny Afanasyev, who are both university academics, are being held in Lefortovo jail while being investigated for “high treason and espionage”, Bobyshev’s lawyer... 

The P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missile. Remark by Russia defense minster comes amid reports that Israeli officials, including PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak, had reportedly warned arms could be used by Hezbollah. Russia plans to go ahead with its sale of advance anti-ship rockets, state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Russian Defense Minster Anatoly Serdyukov as saying on Friday, despite... 

Security operation in Russia's North Caucasus. Russian secret service agents and members of the special police unit OMON killed eight Islamist rebels during an anti-terrorism operation in the conflict-ridden North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the Interfax news agency reported Sunday. A woman was among the dead, Interfax quoted authorities in the capital Makhachkala as saying. They said the bandits... 

Relatives mourn Gusalov Alan, 42, killed in a suicide car attack. Several attacks in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region have left two police officers dead and another five wounded, officials said Saturday. The ministry’s branch in the Caspian Sea province of Dagestan says one officer was gunned down late Friday on the outskirts of the regional capital, Makhachkala. Another policeman... 

Rustem Adagamov is Russia's most popular blogger. When he writes about demonstrations by the political opposition and "unparalleled police brutality," he reaches more readers than many daily newspapers in Moscow do. As Adagamov sees it, "The Internet is the last free territory -- but it won't stay that way for long." With so many of their media sources controlled by the... 

The heatwave has caused forest and peat fires across Russia As Muscovites suffer record high temperatures this summer, a Russian political scientist has claimed the United States may be using climate-change weapons to alter the temperatures and crop yields of Russia and other Central Asian countries. In a recent article, Andrei Areshev, deputy director of the Strategic Culture Foundation, wrote, “At... 

A couple embrace, with buildings shrouded in smog in the background, in central Moscow, August 15, 2010. Acrid smoke from forest and peat bog fires which blanketed Moscow until early last week returned to the Russian capital Sunday as wildfires are still burning around the city. The concentration of carbon monoxide in Moscow air on Sunday morning was more than five times higher than the usual level... 

Russia Burning Russian research scientist Dr. Andrey Areshev writing for the Kremlin’s independent think tank Strategic Culture Foundation warns that the catastrophic fires raging throughout the Motherland may have been caused by American weather weapons and states that “the incidence of the current anomalously high temperatures exclusively in Russia and some adjacent territories invites alternative... 

Russian Court Bans Entire You Tube over “Extremist” Russia For Russians Video; Plus Mein Kampf Sites A court banned access to popular video site YouTube in Russia’s Far East because it contained a video that the Justice Ministry declared extremist, Russian newspapers reported Thursday. The court in the city of Komsomolsk-Na-Amure ruled that a local provider should block YouTube because... 

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has called on military top brass to build “total defense” and accused Russia of planning to “overthrow Georgian democracy.” Not only has Russia not given up its “plan to control Georgia, but they are working intensively on that,” Saakashvili said, speaking at a meeting with army top commanders and senior Defense Ministry’s officials. The president... 

Muscovites attempt to keep cool in a fountain in central Moscow on July 15, 2010. More than 1,000 Russians have drowned recently as they attempted to find relief from a stifling heat wave — many of them after drinking alcohol, officials said. Vadim Seryogin, a department head at Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, told reporters Wednesday that 49 people, including two children, had drowned in... 

The S-400 long-range missile defense system.‎ Russia is planning to install two modern anti-missile defense systems on its border with North Korea, an employee of the Russian Defense Ministry says. Russia has expressed “concern” since a row erupted between North and South Korea after the latter blamed the North of torpedoing its warship near the two countries’ disputed maritime...